The Black Lives Matter movement is serious about the message that police violence is epidemic in America. So race didn’t factor in when they took up the cause of Zachary Hammond, an unarmed, White 19-year-old South Carolina man, who was shot to death by an officer on July 26, 2015 in Seneca, South Carolina. Black Lives Matter publicly cried out for justice for Hammond, just as they did for so many other cases where Blacks were killed by cops. And just like so many others, the officer in Hammond’s case was not charged. While his family has vowed to continue to fight for justice, Black Lives Matter has included Hammond’s name in the long list of victims of excessive police brutality.

As Lincoln Blades commented in The Grio, acknowledging the systemic causes of Hammond’s death means “admitting that black folks haven’t been lying or exaggerating when we’ve said that there is a real problem with policing in America.”

Bomb explodes outside Colorado Springs NAACP office

(I did not know that a person had been arrested, and already sentenced.)

The January 2015 explosion just outside of the NAACP office left many questioning whether or not it was an attack on the national organization and if anyone was targeting Black groups. The accused bomber, Thaddeus Murphy, maintained he was trying to get back at an accountant who worked in the same building and who he said destroyed his tax records. But Henry D. Allen Jr., president of the Colorado Springs branch of the NAACP, said he had no knowledge of any such accountant working from that building, according to The Denver Post. Murphy was sentenced to five years in federal prison.

Minnesota Black Lives Matter Protestors Shot

(I read the news report and that several had been arrested, but did not know that they have not been charged with a hate crime.)

The Black Lives Matter movement broke out of its social media origins and made its mark socially and politically in 2015, but in places like Minnesota it was also violently targeted. In November, five people were shot near a BLM encampment adjacent to Minneapolis police station during a demonstration protesting the police shooting of Jamar Clark, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Four men, Allen Lawrence Scarsella, 23, Joseph Martin Bakman, 27, Nathan Wayne Gustavsson, 21, and Daniel Thomas Macey, 26, were charged in connection with the violence, but were not charged specifically with hate crimes.

Daniel Macey of Pine City, Joseph Backman of Eagan, and Nathan Wayne Gustavsson of Hermantown are charged with one count each of second degree riot with a dangerous weapon. If convicted, they face a minimum of 3 years in prison. The fourth man, Allen Lawrence Scarsella of Lakeville, is charged with first-degree assault. The LA Times has more on this story.

Two Of My Own …

The film, “A Clear View” was released May 1, 2015. It’s a film film based on the events of August 24, 2009 when unarmed Mark Anthony Barmore was killed in a church’s daycare center in front of 9 children and staff. He was shot in the back 3 times by two officers of the Rockford Police Department. Very few people, unless they live in Rockford, know about the case. There’s a saying/theory that all things corrupt in government have their testing ground in Illinois.

Mark Anthony Barmore was killed in 2009 and folks, if you want to read how local decision makers misrepresent facts to cover for the police, this is the story. As one example, in challenge to Jesse Jackson seeing Barmore’s body with three gunshot entrance wounds to his back and no exit wounds, the Winnebago County coroner said that Jackson is not a physician because the back wounds could have been exit wounds. (sigh)

In the event that you’ve kept up with the subpoena situation with Twitter, and the counter-claim against the parents of Kendrick Johnson, you might find it interesting that the two officers who killed Mark Anthony Barmore filed a counter-claim for defamation against the Pastor and the church. Yes — it has happened before. The City of Rockford settled with Barmore’s parents for over a million dollars. The Pastor and his church then dismissed the case against the City of Rockford in the federal court and to move their state claims to the state court. With that action, the counter-claim for defamation was also dismissed.

There’s another film, a documentary, that is coming soon.

What a Hoot!
I had forgotten that in April 2014, a 10-page book was published by “George Zimmerman” titled, “Tips On Being An Effective Neighborhood Watch.” So, I checked on its sales for 2015. The copyright holder is George Zimmeran. It was selling for .99 cents, and is now free. There are comments on the Amazon page, some from those who highly rated it in support of Zimmerman

Our own towerflower posted a comment that in essence, said that George Zimmerman is not qualified to write a book on effective neighborhood watch. Her comment was met by one from David Piercy who supported the book. He didn’t read it. I did – all 10 pages. It’s a parody and mocking of George Zimmerman. It contains a few good laughs. The section on paranoia being a requirement to work an effective neighborhood watch is hilarious, as well as who is accredited for inspiration.

I will take time to watch the movie, a “Clear View.” I did not know about the Mark Anthony Barmore story. I am impressed with BLM movement for supporting Zachary Hammond, a 19 year old White young man. Police targeting any unarmed person who ends up being a fatality which could have been easily prevented, needs to be stopped.

Good Morning Gronda! I cannot find the full movie. I looked on Amazon and they do not have it. If you can find it, please let me know.

There was something in my heart that says when any unarmed person, regardless of race, is killed by police, that BLM will pick it up and support the family. I do believe that it requires the family to agree. Oh how I wish that Ethan Saylor’s mom had come forth to meet with Eric Garner’s family. Ethan, who was Down Syndrome, was choked to death by off-duty, moonlighting officers in Maryland. No one was charged.

On August 24, Mark Anthony Barmore, a 23-year-old Black man, was murdered, shot in the back, by two white cops in Rockford, Illinois. The cops had chased Barmore into the day care center of a church, and shot him down in front of 10-12 children—including three shots to the back, as he lay on the floor. The cops claimed that Barmore had wrestled one of their guns away; but witnesses contradicted this story.
In last week’s Revolution, we went into the official attempts to cover up, and the increasing resistance of the people of Rockford to this outrage. (See “Masses Rise Up Against Police Murder in Rockford Illinois,” Revolution #177.) For the next 10 days, hundreds of the Black people in the city poured out in marches and rallies, speakouts and vigils, town hall meetings, and church services, expressing their outrage at the brutal murder. Then, on September 12, one thousand people marched through the streets of Rockford to the police station, demanding justice. While overwhelmingly Black, this march also included whites and Latinos, some brought out by labor unions and churches, and some who were just outraged by accounts they read in the mainstream news.

The killing of Natasha McKenna seemed to only be reported locally. Her tasering death (20,000volts) at the hands of a prison extraction team did not seem to received much national TV coverage.

My heart is still sick and devastated for Natasha.

Here is my transcript of Erica Totten’s speechat the September 14, 2015 public meeting of the Fairfax County Ad Hoc Commission to Review Police Practices:
(Timestamp 55:48 to 1:00:50 of the public meeting video posted below.)

So what I am bringing to you and to the attention of everybody: If you all have not read the Casual Killing Act of 1705 from Virginia, you need to read this because this is what we are experiencing today. And, it’s not just in Virginia, it is everywhere. And it reads:

“And if any Slave resists, his master or owner or other person by his or her order, correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction, it shall not be to be accounted felony, but the master, owner, and every such other person so giving correction shall be free and acquit of all punishment and accusation for the same as if such incident had never happened.”

This is what we’re dealing with today. This Casual Killing Act of 1705 from this state is specifically showing up in this case for Natasha McKenna.

Her death wasn’t ruled a murder. It was ruled an accident as “if it never happen.” That is a problem for me as a Black woman in this country because Natasha McKenna is me. She is all of us. And, to say that her death is an “accident” and is an “Oops” that you just learn from, I have a problem with that.

And when I have a problem with something, especially when we are talking about systems of oppression, I dismantle that shit. And we all dismantle that

So reports and tears are not enough. They have never been enough. Ray Morrough said he teared up when he watch this video, and yet did not file charges. That’s a problem for me. White tears are not enough. They don’t save us. They don’t.

And, I want to ask everyone on this panel if you could raise you hand if you watched the video, what happened to Natasha McKenna. (majority raise their hands.)

So this is the thing: If watching that, you have to look at that and know there’s no justice here. What they did to her is torture: They had a bag over her head; they tasered her 4 times. This woman was having a psychotic episode. She didn’t know what was happening to her. She had men in white suits groping at her naked body, and she wanted to leave. And, they kept saying, “We’re your friend.” Look at how sadistic that sounds! That is a problem.

So when her mother saw her in a hospital bed with her eyes swollen shut and bruises all over her body, a missing finger, It’s A PROBLEM!

You have to be able to see that this is not enough. It’s not enough. It is not enough. So do something.

The problem with these reports is that there is no justice.

These reports are given the opportunities to aggressors, to the aggressors to share their version of events, often fabricating stories, blaming the victims for their deaths every time a display of the insidiousness of White Supremacy and systemic racism within the Sheriff’s Department and police departments across this country.

In this reports these deputies referred to Natasha McKenna as an animal, and I quote “She growled.” “She looked demonically possessed.” And, “She showed super human strength.”
So, it is condescending to imply that we don’t read. That is part of systemic oppression. That’s the idea that people have about Black people! We read these reports, so don’t try it! It’s condescending.

(Moderator tries to tell her time is up. Audience, though wants her to continue.)

What I have yet to hear is consequences for police that kill people. Attorney Morrough said that he teared up when he watched the video, and
yet he failed to bring charges for murder. And, instead ruled it an accident and put out a 52 page report on why it was Natasha’s fault that they killed her. Or, in the minds of many who don’t see Black people as human why they had to put her down.

She was shackled, a bag placed over her head. She was tasered 4 times at 50,000 volts. She was fighteded, she was scared, and they had terrorized her for days. They terrorized her for days and THAT IS A PROBLEM.

Here is the meeting video. Most of the community input begins at timestamp 50:36. Erica Totten begins speaking at 55:48.

(Xena, if the meeting video which I have posted slows your page down because it is over 2 hours, you may remove it or just post an excerpt from it.)